-Written in 1831 before Hugo was forced to flee from Louis Napoleon's France. In this novel-perhaps his most popular-Hugo paints a vivid portrait of medieval Paris. Quasimodo, the one-eyed, hunchbacked refugee; Esmeralda, the dancing gypsy girl, threatened by the gallows; and a world where chaos is in charge-Hugo captures them all in this timeless, almost Gothic, piece of literature.